tye's modules to the rescue! Algorithm::Loops to handle the variable number of nested foreach-loops, and Data::Diver to handle the multi-dimensional array indexing. 
# (untested)
use Data::Diver qw[Dive DiveVal];
use Algorithm::Loops 'NestedLoops';

NestedLoops(
  [ ( [0..$dimension-1] ) x $depth ],
  sub {
     my @indices = @_;
     my $val = Dive( \@multi_dimensional_array, @indices );

     ## do something with $val. say, push it to an array
  }
);

[download]
Update: Just noticed that you wanted to know how to initialize this big structure to zeroes. The Dive sub doesn't autovivify, but DiveVal does: 
## initialization

my @multi_dimensional_array;

NestedLoops(
  [ ( [0..$dimension-1] ) x $depth ],
  sub {
     DiveVal( \@multi_dimensional_array, @_ ) = 0;
  }
);

[download]

blokhead

In reply to Re: Unfolding a nDeep structure by blokhead
in thread Unfolding a nDeep structure by FFRANK

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.